Dimethyl sulphide, enhancement

Dimethyl sulphide is the most dominant of the reduced sulphur gas found in surface layers of the ocean (Lovelock et al. 1972). The emission of dimethyl sulphide from seawater is expected to balance the excess sulphur deposition over the remote oceans (Charlson et al. 1992). Charlson et al. (1987) proposed a hypothesis, known as the CLAW (after the authors Charlson, Lovelock, Andreae and Warren) hypothesis connecting biogenic DMS emissions to changes in albedo, in which increased production of DMS due to global warming is expected to lead to more sulphate aerosols and subsequently to more cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) that in turn enhances back radiation. 

Methane thiol oxidizes at a convenient rate at 200—275 °C, the reaction being mildly autocatalytic and accompanied by a pressure decrease [107]. The rate is enhanced by increased oxygen concentration, but retarded by excess thiol. The main products include sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and methane but no hydrogen sulphide, carbonyl sulphide or free sulphur. Unless excess oxygen is present, these products do not account for all the sulphur consumed, and Cullis and Roselaar [107] attributed this to formation of dimethyl disulphide although later work [108] has shown that this explanation was unlikely. 

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